Panaji, April 18 (IANS) Goa's Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Churchill Alemao was Monday accused of corruption by a legislator of the NCP, a partner in the Congress-led government.
Former tourism minister Mickky Pacheco filed a complaint with the Crime Branch Monday.
Pacheco alleged that Alemao, a Congress member and former chief minister, violated Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines and the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) manual to manipulate PWD tenders, thereby causing a loss to the exchequer since 2007 when the Congress-led alliance government came to power.
"The loss amounts to hundreds of crores. Over the years, the PWD minister has been responsible for manipulation and rigging of PWD bids with the help of an illegal circular introduced in 2007, which vests all financial powers with the PWD minister," Pacheco told reporters.
"He has amassed wealth for himself and intentionally manipulated, changed and bypassed government directives after fraudulently assuming unto himself total administrative and financial powers," he said in the complaint.
The complaint has several attached documents and notings of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, former finance minister Dayanand Narvekar and other bureaucrats including former chief secretary J.P. Singh.
The complaint also states that a day after he was sworn in as the PWD minister in 2007, Alemao introduced the controversial circular - against the advice of the vigilance secretary and chief secretary - which allowed his office the power to virtually handpick contractors for PWD commissioned works.
Pacheco told reporters at an impromptu press conference outside the Crime Branch office that the complaint had been filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) and Indian Penal code (IPC).
Crime Branch officials said they were in the process of examining the complaint.
The complaint only adds more woe to the already tainted Goa cabinet, which has last week seen a land grab case being filed against Revenue Minister Jose Phillip D'Souza.
Goa Education Minister Atanasio Monserrate was earlier this month nabbed by Mumbai Customs allegedly carrying nearly Rs.1 crore in Indian currency, when he was en route to Dubai.